Transcript An introduction

Context
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Government carried out extensive research
Asked parents what they know and want to know
Main concern was: ‘What’s happening to my child?’
Plea: ‘I want to hear about Curriculum for Excellence
from the professional who knows my child’
Local context: ‘I want to hear how my child’s school is
implementing it’
Toolkit of information produced as support for staff
Equips practitioners to talk to parents
Developed in consultation with practitioners and parents
Curriculum for Excellence?
‘Curriculum’ in this context means ‘all that is planned
for children and young people throughout their
education’:
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The ethos and life of the school as a community
Curriculum areas and subjects
Interdisciplinary learning
Opportunities for personal achievement
What’s the aim?
Curriculum for Excellence: the three pillars
• Raising standards
• Improving knowledge
• Developing skills
…Bringing life to learning and learning to life
What’s the aim?
Curriculum for Excellence: the three pillars
1. Raising standards
It’s raising standards of education to meet the
increasing challenges of a changing world –
preparing our young people for the unknown.
Higher standards will be expected than at present
to equip our children for the increasing
complexity of the world. Standards will be
monitored by schools, centres, HMIE and Local
Authorities.
The three pillars cont.
2. Improving knowledge
It’s bringing learning to life – building on the
many ways that teachers already make learning
engaging. It offers experiences around real life
issues, working in groups, working outside the
classroom, working in different environments with
interesting materials and tools.
Making learning more relevant will help improve
achievements
The three pillars cont.
3. Developing skills
It’s bringing real life to learning – making
learning relevant to the world young people live
in; developing skills for learning, life and work.
Everyone will develop important skills in literacy
and numeracy that will underpin all learning.
Industry and enterprise will offer opportunities for
young people to develop skills needed for the
world of work.
The three pillars cont.
Other life skills include developing critical thinking,
personal learning planning, career management,
working with others, leadership, physical
coordination and movement, enterprise and
employability.
The individual’s health and wellbeing have a new
important focus.
The challenge
Equipping our children with the knowledge and
skills we believe they will need
• to succeed in a future we don’t yet know
• to secure jobs yet to be invented
• to build self-esteem and resilience
• to harness knowledge yet to be discovered.
Why change?
• Preparing young people for an ever changing
world
• Nurturing them to be:
– successful learners
– confident individuals
– responsible citizens
– effective contributors
• Build on Scotland’s reputation for having a great
education system
What’s different?
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A planned ‘learning journey’ from 3 to 18
Improved learning and teaching
New qualifications
More rigorous assessment
Provides skills for learning, life and work
Learning more relevant to the modern world
The curriculum
• Broad and deep education
• General education till the end of S3, then options
• Covers expressive arts, health and wellbeing,
languages, mathematics, religious and moral
education, sciences, social studies, technologies
• All staff have responsibility for:
– literacy
– numeracy
– health and wellbeing
How does it work?
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Broad guidance
National standards and resources
Putting trust in the professionals
Sharing best practice across the profession
Unique ‘Glow’ network joins up the country
More rigorous assessments
Ongoing assessment by the teacher will provide a
rich picture of how much young people know, how
well they are doing and what they need to learn
next to progress.
From time to time teachers will summarise
children’s progress through the Curriculum for
Excellence levels.
What will young people experience?
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A broad and deep education
Learning according to needs and interests
Better engagement
More able to apply knowledge
Support for learning and with life’s challenges
Easier transitions: between stages, beyond school
Make useful links between subjects
Active learning: questioning, doing, thinking
Sense of progress through assessment
Options in the senior phase
Achievements outside school valued: whole picture
Skills for learning, life and work
All teachers are responsible for 3 fundamental
aspects of learning: literacy, numeracy and health
and wellbeing.
Literacy – reading, writing, interpreting information,
spoken language, using computers, film and new
media.
Numeracy – arithmetic, numbers, calculations,
finance.
Skills for learning, life and work cont.
Literacy and numeracy skills help children grasp
every other subject and are vital for work and
throughout life.
Health and wellbeing – nurturing mental,
emotional, social and physical skills to develop selfesteem and positive relationships; and to pursue a
healthy lifestyle and fulfil children’s potential. It
covers topics from nutrition to exercise, healthy
eating to drink/drug awareness, anti-bullying to
buddy schemes.
Learner focus
Teachers and practitioners will ensure that young
people can learn in ways that work for them, at the
right pace for them and with enough challenge to
stretch them. They will consider what each child
already knows and what they need to know to make
learning personal, interesting and relevant to them,
for example – where and how they live and what
their ambitions are.
Learner focus cont.
The combination of deep and broad knowledge,
skills and work experience will give children greater
choice to make their learning fit their abilities,
interests and ambitions.
Broad and deep education
Underpinning all learning, all our young people will
further develop their levels of skill and knowledge in
literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing.
Active learning
Active learning doesn’t mean all lessons are
outdoors or involve running around.
It means encouraging children to ask questions,
seek answers for themselves, work together and
discuss ideas, challenge and come up with their
own solutions.
It’s proactive learning; taking responsibility for
learning; taking an active interest.
Transitions
What young people do at school prepares them for
what they do next in life, so we want to make school
a useful experience for all.
Teachers and practitioners work together to ensure
smooth progress from one year to another. This is
particularly important at transition times – nursery to
primary, primary to secondary and beyond. These
stages are carefully planned to support children and
young people right through from 3 to 18.
Making connections
It’s about making connections, not just across the
curriculum but with industry, news and popular
culture to sustain young people’s learning beyond
the school.
Professionals work together, seeing the young
person as a whole. That might bring together
teachers and speech therapists, planning what’s
best for the young person.
Inter-disciplinary learning
Teachers and practitioners are encouraged to make
connections between subjects and help young
people see how knowledge and skills can be taken
from one ‘lesson’ and applied to another.
Learning another language can be a real help to
understanding English and improving literacy.
Calculating angles in craft based projects puts
numeracy skills to good use.
Support for learning
Teachers and practitioners will be responsible for
identifying the personal support a child needs on a
day to day basis. They work with other
professionals – like speech therapists, health and
social workers to plan a child’s support.
Young people may have specific support needs, for
example during periods of change – moving up from
nursery to primary, primary to secondary and on to
college or work.
Support for learning cont.
Home life sometimes presents challenges – living
with drug abuse, being a young carer, moving
house, divorce, bereavement.
Whatever the issue impacting on learning, children
and their families are invited to ‘Just Ask’ for help.
Additional targeted support for learning will be
provided eg to help children with learning
difficulties like dyslexia and number blindness.
Just ask for help – www.infoscotland.com/justask
Our aim for young people
We all want a good education for our children so
that they are equipped for life and all it might throw
at them. We call this developing ‘the 4 capacities’:
1. Successful learners
Motivated to reach their potential, determined to
succeed, learning how to learn as well as gaining
knowledge – skills for learning, life and work.
Our aim for young people cont.
2. Confident individuals
Able to ask questions, explain ideas, challenge,
stand up for themselves, relate well to others, take
the initiative, lead.
3. Effective contributors
Group projects and workplace experience help
children learn the skills of team working and
encourage creative thinking, discussion of ideas,
problem solving and partnership.
Our aim for young people cont.
4. Responsible citizens
eg As they go on to study, work or bring up their
own family, our children will know how to respect
themselves and others and will be able to
understand the world we live in and how they can
participate responsibly and fully in shaping it.
Trusting professionals
Curriculum for Excellence marks a shift from
prescriptive guidance to more professional freedom
and responsibility. Teachers are working with the
new guidance which what experiences children and
young people are entitled to and the outcomes they
should achieve.
This supports professionals to teach subjects more
creatively and gives them the responsibility to make
it work.
Building on the best
There have always been inspiring teachers. Now
teachers are sharing ideas, good practice and
experiences through Glow, an online community
that is a world first for Scotland. All teachers will be
able to learn from the best.
Glow provides a powerful tool for CPD by allowing
collaboration and joined-up working with easy
access to shared resources, which is connecting
people and ideas through communities of practice.
Professional development
This is a chance for all those responsible for
children and young people to learn and grow too.
There is guidance, training, information, tools and
resources to help.
Professional development is often best carried out
with colleagues to promote understanding and
collaboration. Colleagues can share ideas and
resources, and engage in professional dialogue to
take the lead in development and innovation.
Professional development cont.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority oversee the
development of qualifications in Scotland. The SQA
Academy and Scotland’s colleges have created a
unique suite of staff development opportunities to
support the teaching profession.
What does it mean for Scotland?
1. Prepared for life
We live in a fast changing world where
technology, travel, migration, advanced
knowledge and the effects of industry and
consumerism impact on individuals, society and
the environment. We aim to provide our children
with the knowledge and skills we believe they will
need to succeed in a future we don’t yet know, to
secure jobs yet to be invented, to build selfesteem and resilience, and to harness
knowledge yet to be discovered.
What does it mean for Scotland? cont.
2. Growing talent
This is a drive to provide a universal education
service, nurture our young people, teach our
children how to learn, be adaptable and thrive.
3. Creative education
Scotland has a world-wide reputation for the
quality of its education system. We want to keep
it like that. These changes will secure the best
chance for our children’s future in a competitive
global economy.
What parents can do – Early Years
Sharing, planning and learning!
• Play, Talk, Read with your child – visit this
website for more ideas –
http://www.infoscotland.com/playtalkread/
• Sing songs together, dance, have fun
• Praise effort
• Go out for walks and visits and talk about what
you see
• Help them to think about others
• Talk to the staff working with your child
What parents can do – Early Years cont.
• Share important information with staff
• Take an interest – find out what they are doing at
nursery or school and think about what you can
do at home to build on this
• Read them anything!
• Look for opportunities at home to develop literacy
and numeracy skills: counting, money, time,
measuring, matching, size, reading, pointing out
words, naming things
• Encourage them to make their own choices
• Help prepare for change – talk about it together
What parents can do – Early Years cont.
• Ask for extra help if you think your child needs it
for any reason. Visit
www.infoscotland.com/justask
• Be there – help, listen, support and encourage
• Talk to them about how they are feeling
What parents can do – Primary
Sharing, planning and learning!
• Listen, talk, share and encourage – this has a big
influence on children's learning
• Do things together – learn together and have fun
together
• Praise effort
• Encourage a ‘can do’ approach – ‘give it a try,
you might just like it’
• Help them to respect others
• Talk to them about their strengths and interests,
and help them make choices based on these
What parents can do – Primary cont.
• Find out what learning is happening at school and
do what you can at home to build on that
• Help them work on tasks on their own and then
talk about it with you afterwards
• Encourage any reading – books, online, it all
helps!
• Look for opportunities at home to develop literacy
and numeracy skills: money, number problems,
time, measuring, matching, size, reading, writing,
understanding instructions, questioning
information
What parents can do – Primary cont.
• Encourage them to make their own choices
• Ask for extra help if you think your child needs it
for any reason. Visit
www.infoscotland.com/justask
• Be there – help, listen, support and encourage
• Talk to them about how they are feeling
Further information
Parents can find out more
www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk
Teachers and other professionals:
www.curriculumforexcellence.gov.uk
The partners working to deliver Curriculum for Excellence are:
Scottish Government
www.scotland.gov.uk
The government has responsibility for the national education system
Learning and Teaching Scotland
www.LTScotland.org.uk
Develops the curriculum, provides information and guidance
on learning and teaching
Scottish Qualifications Authority
www.sqa.gov.uk
Develops, marks and manages the qualifications process
HMIE
The inspectors who monitor the quality of education
www.hmie.gov.uk
Attainment Levels
The expectations about progression through curriculum levels are:
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the early curriculum level in the pre-school years and P1
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first curriculum level to the end of P4
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second curriculum level to the end of P7
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third and fourth curriculum levels – S1 to S3 (fourth curriculum
level broadly
• aligns to SCQF level 4)
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the senior phase – S4 to S6, and college or other means of study.
These expectations apply to the learning of every child and young
person as far as this is consistent with their learning needs and prior
achievements.